Monash – Australia 2022

LIB 6.9%

Incumbent MP
Russell Broadbent, since 2019. Previously member for Corinella 1990-1993, member for McMillan 1996-1998, 2004-2019.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2019 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
South-eastern Victoria. Monash covers parts of Victoria stretching from the south-eastern fringe of Melbourne to the Latrobe Valley. The seat stretches from Western Port in the west to Moe in the east, and stretches down to the coast. McMillan covers the entirety of Bass Coast and South Gippsland council areas, most of Baw Baw council area and parts of the Latrobe council area. The seat covers the towns of Warragul, Moe, Wonthaggi, Leongatha and Foster.

Redistribution
Monash contracted on its western edge, losing Bunyip and Koo Wee Rup to La Trobe. This reduced the Liberal margin from 7.4% to 6.9%.

History

The electorate name “Monash” was introduced in 2019 as a new name for the seat of McMillan, which had been first created in 1949. The seat has mostly been held by conservative parties, although since the 1980s the ALP has won the seat on a number of occasions.

The seat was first won by Geoffrey Brown of the Liberal Party in 1949. Brown won a three-cornered contest on Country Party preferences. The Country Party occasionally would contest the seat throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but never managed to overtake the Liberal Party. Brown was reelected in 1951 and 1954 but died in 1955 before the election.

The seat was won at the 1955 election by Alexander Buchanan, also a Liberal. Buchanan held the seat for seventeen years without taking ministerial office before losing the Liberal Party’s endorsement in 1972.

Buchanan stood as an independent in 1972, and preferences from the DLP and Buchanan allowed Country Party candidate Arthur Hewson to leapfrog the official Liberal candidate and defeat the ALP candidate on Liberal preferences.

Hewson was reelected in a fierce contest in 1974, when the Liberals stood Ronald Dent against him despite a coalition agreement, and Hewson narrowly defeated Dent on primary votes before overtaking the ALP on preferences.

Hewson was defeated by Liberal candidate Barry Simon in 1975, and the Nationals never came close to winning McMillan again. Simon held the seat until 1980, when the ALP’s Barry Cunningham won it.

Cunningham held the seat throughout the 1980s, losing to John Riggall (LIB) in 1990. Riggall was defeated by Cunningham in 1993, and Cunningham was defeated by Russell Broadbent in 1996.

Broadbent had previously held the neighbouring seat of Corinella for one term from 1990 to 1993, and Corinella had been abolished at the 1996 election.

Broadbent was again defeated in 1998 by Christian Zahra, a 25-year-old ALP candidate. Zahra was made a shadow Parliamentary Secretary after the 2001 election, and was considered to have a promising career, before losing to Broadbent in 2004.

Broadbent managed to win re-election in 2007 after developing a reputation for rebelling against the Howard government’s immigration policies, and has been re-elected four more times since.

Candidates

Assessment
Monash is a reasonably safe Liberal seat.

2019 result

2019 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into four areas, which reflect local government boundaries.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in two areas, with 59.8% in Baw Baw and 61.7% in South Gippsland. Labor polled 52.3% in Bass Coast and 56.5% in Latrobe.

Election results in Monash at the 2019 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party and Labor.

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